Personality in depression: concordance between clinical assessment and questionnaires

The concordance between Vanggaard's concept of character neurosis and three personality questionnaires (Marke-Nyman Temperament Scale, Cesarec-Marke Personality Scale, and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) was evaluated in 73 patients who were treated for a major depression in general practice. After an interview with the patients Vanggaard classified 57 of them to be without character neurosis, and the remaining 16 patients were considered to have a character neurosis. It was found that Eysenck's Neuroticism scale significantly corresponded to Vanggaard's classification. Among the other personality scales Acquiescence and Autonomy were the most important. Studies on the predictive validity of these subscales are in progress.